Nikon D60 10.2MP Digital-SLR Camera

Targeting newer photographers, the Nikon D60 is priced right and includes a fantastic feature set. On top of the 10MP sensor, the D60 includes an automatic sensor cleaner, a vibration reduction kit lens, fast 3FPS performance, high ISO modes and a lot more.

Color & ISO Quality

I didn’t mention it earlier, but the D60 features six different ISO modes. There are no real in-betweens, so to help keep things simple, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600 and HI-1 (3200) are there for the taking. To test for noise, I set the camera up on a tripod and took an image of the same location with each setting. The block in each corner represents a portion of the image at it’s full-size to better show the noise.

f/5.6, 30s, ISO 100, 55mm

f/5.6, 30s, ISO 200, 55mm

f/5.6, 30s, ISO 400, 55mm

f/5.6, 9s, ISO 800, 55mm

f/5.6, 4s, ISO 1600, 55mm

f/5.6, 2s, ISO 3200, 55mm

The camera performs well all they way up to ISO 800. It’s not the best I’ve seen, but it’s not worth much of a complaint either. ISO 1600 and higher are going to be for special circumstances only, as they are noisier than an Airbus A320 in flight.

The stock color options available are Normal, Software, Vivid, More Vivid, Portrait and B/W. If none of these suit a particular task, you are able to create your own preset.

Normal

Softer

Vivid

More Vivid

Portrait

Black & White

Normal is no doubt the setting most people will use, but Vivid is a great one for those who want richer color. More Vivid tends to overdo things, but it might suit a specific type of photo. Given that this is designed to be a beginner’s D-SLR, it would have been nice to see a Sepia preset in the mix.

Though not overly robust, the selection between different color modes and ISO modes is good, and should fit perfectly for most people who are new to the SLR world. The ability to reach ISO 1600 and beyond is nice, but the quality leaves a lot to be desired. ISO 1600 tends to only look good on $2,000+ D-SLRs, so that’s to be expected.